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Met with Wine-O and spouse at a Biergarten last night and took delivery of this nice Le Mans Blue E93 M3 this morning. Almost a disaster but narrowly averted. More to follow. Keri-Lynne Shaw made a special trip to meet us and Bernard Hausmaninger was very helpful. Stay tuned for more.

Okay, it's now nine hours later after the original post above, and we're ensconced in a terrific little hotel at the foot of the Stelvio Pass after a nice dinner and a coupla glasses of some good local Lagrein. The M3 is outside resting up for the 40-something hairpins on the way up to the summit of the Passo dello Stelvio tomorrow, so let me try to fill in the blanks in the rushed message above.

First off, I hope you noticed that I saved my 1,000th post here on the 'Fest for my delivery post. It's not like I'm a B-Fest addict or anything...

Very nice flight from LA to London in Business Class on British Airways. We both slept for something like six hours, which is really saying something, since my previous record for sleeping on an airplane, including 17-hour flights to the Orient, was maybe 15 minutes. Let's hear it for true lie-flat beds, although I was not too thrilled with them initially.

Arrived in Munich without incident and Rolf whisked us to the Hotel Laimer Hof, which is out of the way on a quiet back street near Nymphenburg Palace. We had made prior arrangements to meet Wine-O, (Mike and Maureen from New Jersey in real life), at the Hirschgarten for dinner (picture above) which was very enjoyable. And this morning, they were about half an hour behind us in the process, and we actually took delivery of our cars (theirs a nice 535xi) almost simultaneously, on platforms about 60 feet apart.

A special treat was having Keri-Lynne Shaw walk across the street and visit with us prior to our delivery. We had gotten acquainted three years ago in the course of resolving the problems on our first ED Adventure and she had also helped secure our dates for this trip. It was great of her to afford us the time from her busy schedule. She's the kind of extraordinary person that brings the clammy concept of customer service to life.

Was delighted to have Bernard Hausmaninger as our delivery specialist, and he seemed genuinely tickled to learn he's so well known here on the ED Forum. One curious note is that owners of the M3s do not get the computer orientation or the simulator drive. According to Bernard, it's because the M Division guys said no; some combination of the dollars required and the special nature of the M cars being more suited for a completely hands-on demonstration. You decide.

Everything was going along just fine until we decided to put our stuff in the trunk via Comfort Access. First hitch was that the two rollaboards that had traveled there in my '08 335 E93 just plain wouldn't fit in the same space in the M3. Apparently the tire goo and compressor add just enough of a height change in the trunk floor that the cargo cover won't close over the bags. Hmm. Didn't anyone in the Engineering Department think to maybe put that stuff somewhere else so luggage would fit? Future E93 M3 potential buyers, consider yourselves warned.

Anyhow, the top went into it's spot okay, but the decklid didn't want to close. Bernard got it to close a time or two by using the key in the door lock, but when trying it again, the top would cycle open and then retract, but the decklid would still stay in the open position. Bernard was able to coax it closed a couple of times with some magical combination of keypresses on the remote and/or the key in the door lock, but it but it finally quit cooperating altogether. There we sat, open-mouthed, with the decklid pointed at the sky as we tried to figure what the frack was happening. Visions of our lost two-and-a-half days from three years ago started pirouetting through our heads as Bernard's expression went from puzzled to stumped to perplexed. We both confessed to thinking, "..please, not again…......."

We went back upstairs to the Premium lounge where at least the food was good, the drinks were cold and it was all free. Meanwhile, the car went to "the workshop" for further attention.

A couple of tense hours passed, and it turned out to be a simple, flukey mistake. When Bernard was answering my question about the missing trunk space, he had put the USA front license plate holder, which is not installed on the car but rather left in the trunk, in the Forbidden Zone where the top mechanism has to live when it's in the closed position, and left it there. The license plate holder is just thin enough that the top could be persuaded to close by someone as experienced as Bernard, but after a few tries, got tired of our chicanery and refused to close altogether. Relocate the license plate holder, and the top works just fine. Large sigh of relief.

I had to dash off the initial message above because Bernard was by now way behind schedule and had little patience for me screwing around on the 'Fest. We rushed through the rest of the demo, spent our cash on food and a BMW logo shirt so Bee doesn't yell at me for sporting my Ferrari gear again, and headed for the northern end of the Stelvio Pass, where we sit at this very moment.

Some Dutch bikers relaxing on the terrace of the hotel restaurant here wanted to know all about the car before we even had the luggage out of the trunk, so I gave them a guided tour, complete with them sitting in the driver's seat and blipping the throttle. Fun for all.

The Spousal Unit says for me to have all the fun I want driving to the top of the pass by myself in the morning, and then come back and get her and the luggage so we can drive it at a more civilized pace that doesn't involve her swearing and grabbing for handholds on every other corner. Sounds like a plan.

Just got back from driving it solo - all 49 hairpin turns from here to the summit. And then back again. Assuming you have good brakes and tires, the biggest hazard seems to be the Italian road maintenance guys in little trucks and a few great big ones who, typically Italian, take their half of the extremely narrow road out of the middle. We'll get some pictures on the return trip with the photographer in the car.

Okay, it's now nine hours later after the original post agove, and we're ensconced in a terrific little hotel at the foot of the Stelvio Pass after a nice dinner and a coupla glasses of some good local Lagrein. The M3 is outside resting up for the 40-something hairpins on the way up to the summit of the Passo dello Stelvio tomorrow, so let me try to fill in the blanks in the rushed message above.

First off, I hope you noticed that I saved my 1,000th post here on the 'Fest for my delivery post. It's not like I'm a B-Fest addict or anything...

Very nice flight from LA to London in Business Class on British Airways. We both slept for something like six hours, which is really saying something, since my previous record for sleeping on an airplane, including 17-hour flights to the Orient, was maybe 15 minutes. Let's hear it for true lie-flat beds, although I was not too thrilled with them initially.

Arrived in Munich without incident and Rolf whisked us to the Hotel Laimer Hof, which is out of the way on a quiet back street near Nymphenburg Palace. We had made prior arrangements to meet Wine-O, (Mike and Maureen from New Jersey in real life), at the Hirschgarten for dinner (picture above) which was very enjoyable. And this morning, they were about half an hour behind us in the process, and we actually took delivery of our cars (theirs a nice 535xi) almost simultaneously, on platforms about 60 feet apart.

A special treat was having Keri-Lynne Shaw walk across the street and visit with us prior to our delivery. We had gotten acquainted three years ago in the course of resolving the problems on our first ED Adventure and she had also helped secure our dates for this trip. It was great of her to afford us the time from her busy schedule. She's the kind of extraordinary person that brings the clammy concept of customer service to life.

Was delighted to have Bernard Hausmaninger as our delivery specialist, and he seemed genuinely tickled to learn he's so well known here on the ED Forum. One curious note is that owners of the M3s do not get the computer orientation or the simulator drive. According to Bernard, it's because the M Division guys said no; some combination of the dollars required and the special nature of the M cars being more suited for a completely hands-on demonstration. You decide.

Everything was going along just fine until we decided to put our stuff in the trunk via Comfort Access. First hitch was that the two rollaboards that had traveled there in my 335 E93 just plain wouldn't fit in the same space in the M3. Apparently the tire goo and compressor add just enough of a height change in the trunk floor that the cargo cover won't close over the bags. Hmm. Didn't anyone in the Engineering Department think to maybe put that stuff somewhere else so luggage would fit? Future E93 M3 potential buyers, consider yourselves warned.

Anyhow, the top went into it's spot okay, but the decklid didn't want to close. Bernard got it to close a time or two by using the key in the door lock, but when trying it again, the top would cycle open and then retract, but the decklid would still stay in the open position. Bernard was able to coax it closed a couple of times with some magical combination of keypresses on the remote and/or the key in the door lock, but it but it finally quit cooperating altogether. There we sat, open-mouthed, with the decklid pointed at the sky as we tried to figure what the frack was happening. Visions of our lost two-and-a-half days from three years ago started pirouetting through our heads as Bernard's expression went from puzzled to stumped to perplexed. We both confessed to thinking, "please, not again….."

We went back upstairs to the Premium lounge where at the food was good, the drinks were cold and it was all free. while the car went to "the workshop" for further attention.

A couple of tense hours passed, and it turned out to be a simple, flukey mistake. When Bernard was answering my question about the missing trunk space, he had put the USA front license plate holder, which is not installed on the car but rather left in the trunk, in the Forbidden Zone where the top mechanism has to live when it's in the closed position, and left it there. The license plate holder is just thin enough that the top could be persuaded to close by someone as experienced as Bernard, but after a few tries, got tired of our chicanery and refused to close altogether. Relocate the license plate holder, and the top works just fine. Large sigh of relief.

I had to dash off the initial message above because Bernard was now way behind schedule and had little patience for me screwing around on the Fest. We rushed through the rest of the demo, spent our cash on food and a BMW logo shirt so Bee doesn't yell at me for my Ferrari gear again, and headed for the northern end of the Stelvio Pass, where we sit at this very moment.

Some Dutch bikers relaxing on the terrace of the hotel restaurant here wanted to know all about the car before we even had the luggage out of the trunk, so I gave them a guided tour, complete with them sitting in the driver's seat and blipping the throttle. Fun for all.

The Spousal Unit says for me to have all the fun I want driving to the top of the pass by myself in the morning, and then come back and get her and the luggage so we can drive it at a more civilized pace that doesn't involve her swearing and grabbing for handholds on every other corner. Sounds like a plan.

A couple of tense hours passed, and it turned out to be a simple, flukey mistake. When Bernard was answering my question about the missing trunk space, he had put the USA front license plate holder, which is not installed on the car but rather left in the trunk, in the Forbidden Zone where the top mechanism has to live when it's in the closed position, and left it there. The license plate holder is just thin enough that the top could be persuaded to close by someone as experienced as Bernard, but after a few tries, got tired of our chicanery and refused to close altogether. Relocate the license plate holder, and the top works just fine. Large sigh of relief.

Haha! We had this happen to us, too, though not with Bernard (although he WAS our delivery specialist). After we left the Welt we managed to move the US plate frames into the forbidden zone when unpacking the car one time (the frames were in the way and there was a spot there...). If the frame is in just the right place it won't obstruct the mechanism, but if it moves even a centimeter, the car won't close and because it's so thin it doesn't appear to be in the way.

A rainy day on Lake Como has us cooped up in the hotel (not really a bad thing – it's Lake Como after all), and I'm reflecting on the experience of having driven the Stelvio Pass 1½ times yesterday.

First off, I'm glad The Spousal Unit told me to go have fun by myself while she slept in. It gave me the chance to drive it aggressively since I did it early, without other traffic on the road. When we drove it again later, it was loaded with motorcycles, bicyclists (full admiration) and even a few campers, which made driving aggressively pretty much out of the question.

It's an epic road with amazing scenery, but "best driving road in the world" according to Top Gear? Wouldn't get my vote. It's certainly daunting, because it's very narrow, not in the best state of repair, and completely unforgiving of mistakes. But it's more a tires-and-brakes road than it is handling and balance.

Sure, it's an interesting experience to be accelerating down a narrow lane with a high rock wall on one side and some granite blocks separating you and the hereafter on the other, and with another rock wall the only thing visible in front of you, and thinking, "okay, the road's gonna turn sharply, get on the binders and downshift..". Repeat that 49 times on the way up and a whole bunch more, just not quite as tightly on the way down, and that's the Stelvio Pass.

But the hairpins are so extreme that you're really taking half of them at about 3 mph and the other half at maybe 10mph. So it's hard to carry any speed or rhythm or generate much excitement.

That's just me.

Maybe the issue is that the M3 is so competent that it takes a lot of the risk out of doing a drive like this one and kind of dampens the fear-fueled adrenalin rush that would probably be there in a car with less power, dodgy brakes, fewer gears and squirrelly tires.

As always, YMMV.

Key to today's pictures:
There's very little room for error on the north climb up the Stelvio.

As a matter of fact, downshifting the S65 when being driven aggressively on the Stelvio was pretty cool. It's almost like BMW miniaturized a racing driver and put him in the computer for those folks who never learned how to heel-and-toe a manual transmission, just so they could have the experience. I wouldn't mind standing by the side of the road to hear it from outside. I may do just that when the car gets back to SoCal. Therre's a well-known run up a certain mountain in San Diego County that would provide an ideal venue...

As a matter of fact, downshifting the S65 when being driven aggressively on the Stelvio was pretty cool. It's almost like BMW miniaturized a racing driver and put him in the computer for those folks who never learned how to heel-and-toe a manual transmission, just so they could have the experience. I wouldn't mind standing by the side of the road to hear it from outside. I may do just that when the car bet's back to SoCal. Therre's a well-known run up a certain mountain in San Diego County that would provide an ideal venue...

Let me know when you go! I know exactly where you're talking about and this would certainly be fun! I've done this both up and down the front side, and have also been down the back side. A good alternative would be SR78 down Banner Grade on the other side of Julian.

It’s an epic road with amazing scenery, but “best driving road in the world” according to Top Gear? Wouldn’t get my vote. It’s certainly daunting, because it’s very narrow, not in the best state of repair, and completely unforgiving of mistakes. But it’s more a tires-and-brakes road than it is handling and balance.

I think the Top Gear vote was for the entire Davos-Stelvio route, not just the switchback part of the pass. The segment they did was far longer than just the steep part, and there were spots where they ran the cars out for a while.

Also: since I'm thinking of taking my new 328i out on some drives around here in Southern CA, where is this road in San Diego County that's good? Heck, what ARE some good drives around here?

Also: since I'm thinking of taking my new 328i out on some drives around here in Southern CA, where is this road in San Diego County that's good? Heck, what ARE some good drives around here?

Here's the first road that boothguy mentioned. The destination is Mt. Palomar. Coming from I-15 South take the SR76 exist and then go southeast on SR76, from the upper left of the map, then take either the first road (Nate Harrison Road) or the second road (Mt. Palomar Rd/South Grade) off SR 76 to get up to Mt. Palomar. You can then come down either road, or take State Park Road and East Grade Road southeast all the way down to Lake Henshaw, then return west on SR76.

If you've got all day, you can combine them. The roads between Mt. Palomar and Julian are all pretty enjoyable! A good return home would be to take SR79 from south of Lake Henshaw up through Warner springs back to I-15 North back to Orange County.

These are both AWESOME roads and I've done them both many times in my S2000. Mt. Palomar is particularly attractive to motorcyclists and you'll see a lot. Traffic can sometimes be bad and extremely frustrating when you're stuck behind someone out for a Sunday drive and going 30 MPH all the way up without pulling over. I've convinced that some people, possibly local residents, do this on purpose to combat speeders.

Tom nailed the Mt. Palomar drive I was talking about. I did the I-15-to-Julian routing with a group of my Vintage Ferrari buds last August with me in my 335 cabrio since my F-car is still in pieces - come sempre. Chased a 550 Maranello up and led a F430 Scuderia down. Funny thing was that when we started out, they were treating my 335 kinda like it was invisible. But every time we stopped, whomever had been running near me would come over and look at the car like they were seeing it for the first time and say something along the lines of, "#@$% - that thing is quick!".

So after not laying eyes on the M3 for three days, since travel around Lake Como is primarily by passenger ferry, I was happy to see it right where I left it, with no other cars anywhere near – an unusual circumstance in parking-challenged Italian towns.

A quick trip down the Autostrada gets us to the Langhe part of the Piemonte region – home of some of Italy's best red wines: Nebbiolo, Barbera, Barbaresco and the king of them all, Barolo.

The hilltop towns that produce these wonderful beverages are largely unchanged by time and really tiny (under a thousand inhabitants), and also not very far apart. Which means not too much time on the narrow, twisty roads between wine tastings – ordinarily a bad thing. But since pouring this stuff into a dump bucket seems so sacrilegious, it's good that the drives are shorter right now.

It's been raining off and on, which means the Le Mans Blue is showing the dirt. But I'm really liking the current-generation NAV, and the I-Drive is way better than on my '08 335 E93 as well. The non-runflat Michelin Pilot Sports are compliant but plenty grippy and the DCT gearbox is really dual purpose. Let it shift on its own, and it's almost imperceptible in its smoothness. But in spirited driving and using the paddles, it's lightning-quick and extremely direct. Wow.

They're introdcing the 2007 vintage in Barolo tomorrow and all the producers will be there pouring. We'll see if we can elbow our way into the town, which seems to have parking for about 50 cars total.

We waved to George Clooney, but he didn't wave back – the snob. He's OFF the Christmas card list for this.

Less than a week and the M3's already pretty dirty. Energetic lady in the picture restored this villa above Alba and turned it into a seven-room B&B, and it's even nicer than this picture can depict.

View from last night's restaurant toward Barbaresco (with the tower), and all those Nebbiolo grapes in between, just waiting their turn to become wine.

Wine tasting with a view – Barbaresco.

Wine tasting with producer Giuseppe Grasso in his cellar at Cascina del Monastero. Good Barolo is astronomically expensive in the States, but here, 25Euro gets you a really nice bottle of wine. And this was REALLY nice.

A couple of Swiss families were tasting at Cascina Del Monastero with us, and took home at least six cases of wine, all crammed into the back of his 3er wagon. I asked the driver here in the pic where the luggage was going to fit, and he said, ".. the wine is more important". A man after my own heart.

Giuseppe left us on our own in the cantina with 12 bottles of wine. Luckily, moderation won the day – otherwise we'd have been sleeping there.